welcome back. you are live in the cnn newsroom. i m jim acosta in washington. and russia, it s the day after. the day after the head of the wagner mercenary group called off his armed rebellion and advance on moscow the day of the military leadership in the handles of the war in ukraine, the day of wagner forces were almost uncharged as the columns marched towards moscow. it s the day after. locals were heard cheering for the mercenaries, and not for putin. they said they had captured military facilities in two russian cities. the wagner chief yevgeny prigozhin said he wanted to spear sharing russian blood. translator: realizing all the responsibility that russian blood will be shed from one of the sides. we turn our columns around and leave in the of sirte direction to the field camps, according to the plan. did you ever think you would see this? here is prigozhin receiving a h hero s farewell as he leaves. the kremlin says he will not be prosecuted and he will be sent t
heads and saying, how did we get here? the russia watchers i have been talking to and reading, everyone s is scratching their heads. the only sense i can make from a day like today, you have two guys who found themselves in untenable situations and had to find their way out. prigozhin is go, go, go, and had all the support, marching on moscow, passing through military garrisons and all the sudden realized, did i bite off more than that i can chew? and the group of chechens and you have putin with about 25,000 troops marching on me? what do i do about that? even if i defeat them, it s going to look back. and the bess they can come up with, how about belarus?
as they move north, have deliberately avoided some of the city centers, as they go north. it s western intelligence s view that is intention toll avoid coming into contact or conflict with russian military garrisons along the way and in other words find an easier path north to the russian capital, where our understanding is that there are defensive preparations under way, in the russian capital. but that is the focus now. this is a serious challenge. outright military confrontation in russia. and western intelligence watching to see what the reaction is from those regular russian military forces, as wagner forces move north. and what really worries the u.s. and other nato allies is the stability of the russian nuclear arsenal right now, the tactical nuclear weapons, for example, they re worried about all of this, as they should be. do we have a better understanding yet, jim, on how all of this, these dramatic
i ll give it a shot. this is not over, i don t think we re going to wake up tomorrow or monday morning and say wow, that was interesting, i m glad it s over. there is little doubt in my mind that prigozhin must have done some significant planning before he started his activities. he didn t just wake up this morning and say how about we do this or a weekor month ago. he has to have some of the most senior putin guys at least aware of his concerns and perhaps willing to look the other way as he starts to do things like either march toward moscow or take over, you know, larger cities and russian military garrisons in the country. that s not something that you just do and be willing to suffer the consequences unless you have at least some tacit support inside the kremlin. now it s entirely possible that what he has decided is, okay, now is not the time, or it s possible that some of these folks that he s been talking to, probably not putin, inside the kremlin have said, wait a minute, now
DIMAPUR, MAY 8 (MExN): A second column of the Assam Rifles is set to pick up stranded students and families of Nagaland from Imphal and bring them back to Kohima on May 9.